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TRE llOX. 3MR. STORRS, 

M 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

ox THE 


SEMINOLE WAR. 


I 


HOUSE OF rephesektatives, 
January S3. 




In committee of the whole on the state of the Union, 

! (Jlr. Terry in the chair,) the following* resolution, re* 
ported by the committee on military affairs, tog-ether with 
the amendments proposed thereto, by Mr. Cobby being 
under consideration, viz. 

. Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the United 
II States disapproves tlie proceedings iu the trial and execution of 
[ Alexander Arhuthnot and Robert C. Ambrister. 

' The amendments proposed by Mr. Cobby are as fol¬ 
low : 

Resolved, That the committee on military affairs be in¬ 
structed to jirepare and report a bill to tliis House, prohibiting, V- 

I in time of peace, or in time of war with any Indian tribe or tribes 
only, the execution of any captive, taken by the army of tlie 
ft United States, v ithout the approbation of such execution by tlie 
; President. 

' Resolved, That this House disapproves of the seizure of the 
posts of St. Marks and Pensacola, and the fortress of Ban-ancas, 
contrary to orders, and in violation of the Constitution- 







great as his services have been, they aflTorcl no sanctuary 
against our enquiry—much less do they furnish any ex¬ 
culpation for the violation of the constitution. An exam¬ 
ple of impunity on s«ich grounds, for these assump¬ 
tions of power, will produce tlie most pernicious conse¬ 
quences an.ong the subordinate officers of the army.-— 
Day after day have petitions been presented to this 
House, from the army, for indemnity against judgments 
awarded lor the violation of the person^ liberty of our ci¬ 
tizens. I'he disposition to encroach upon the civil autho¬ 
rities of the government should receive no encourage¬ 
ment fi’om our hands. For some time past, the people 
of this country have indulged a dangerous predilection 
for the army. In the civil departments one may attain 
to the hig'hest eminence, aiid scarcely attract attention 
beyond the immediate sphere in which he moves—but, 
clothe him with the glare of military renown, and the 
eyes of the people are dazzled—his fame has no limits, 
andeveiy one is ambitious and eager to honor him. It 
is time that we were roused from this fatal delusion. The 
affections of the country have been too bountifully de¬ 
voted to the army, and the time may yet come, when the 
people will find it too late to reti-ieve this error of 
their hearts. If, sir, we consult the past history of other 
countries, and turn our eye back through ages which 
have gone before us, or if we look only to the events of 
our own times, we find much to warn us against receiv¬ 
ing the services of public men as an apology for their u- 
surpations. Every tyraru, who has succeeded in over¬ 
turning the liberties of his country, first stole the 

affections of his countrymen by the services which he 
had rendered to the state. On this occasion it is well 
worthy of remark, that these have, with few exccjjtions, 
been military services. Caesar and Ilonaparte only com¬ 
menced their bloody career of tyranny after they luid ri¬ 
sen to power on the misguided aff ections of the ])eople. 
In forming my judgment on the specific propositions be¬ 
fore us, I lay altogether aside the motives of Ceneral 
Jackson. Laudable as tliey may have been, or faithfully 
as he may have believed himself to be acting in the dis¬ 
charge of his duty to his country, these form ito {nirt of 
the enquiry before us. 'Po me it is immaterial with 
what view^s or what motives he has infringed upon the 
constitution. Our object should be to prevent the force 
of the precedent w’hich these measures establish. If the 
powers of Congress have been encroached upon, let us 
declare it, unless we are prepared to surrender our 
prerogatives to a military chieftain, or to gave up the 
constitution to mere matters of delicacy. Tlus is nut. 


5 


an enquiry witli a view to the censure of General Jack- 
son. It isreciuLred from us by the duty of self-preserra- 
tion. 'riic indirect censure which some of these reso¬ 
lutions imply, is no fault of ours. The enemy whom he 
triumphantly vanquished at iv'ew-Orleans can derive no 
self-g-ratification from our proceeding’s. Would they 
boast, I would tell them to meet him in the field. I'he 
measures of this house will afford but a miserable conso¬ 
lation to tliose who tliere felt the energy of his arm, and 
whose pride was there humbled in tlie dust before his 
skill and valour. 

The subject of these resolutions divides itself into se¬ 
veral enquiries : the capture of Pensacola—the seizure 
of St. Marks—tlie crossing of the Florida line—and the 
execution of the captives. Whatever may be the justi- 
ffcatio!! for the seizure of Pensacola, the Barancas, and 
St. Marks, which the executive has urged as between us 
and Spain, it is plainly admitted by him, that the occu¬ 
pation of tiiese posts was not justified by any orders 
which were issued. Such is the fair import of the mes¬ 
sage communicated at the commencement of the session. 
If any doubt can exist on this point, it must be removed 
i>y recurring to the letter of Mr. Adams, to the Spanish 
Minister at tliis place, of the 30th of November last. In 
that letter, w’hich is written on the same day with the 
letter of Mr, Adams to Mr. Erving, he says : “ But it is 
“ proper, in the first instance, in reference to the first of * 
tlie propositions made by you on the 24th of last month, 

“ to correct an erroneous impression whicli you enter- 
tain, and which is certainly not warranted by any com- 
‘‘ munications which you have received from thisgovern- 
“ meat. You have been informed that the contingencies 
“ upon which Gen. Jackson adopted those measures 
“ which you represent as hostilities and outrages, not 
having been anticipated, had not been provided for ia 
^ his instructions; that tliey were unforeseen cmergen- 
“ cies, upon which, judging measures of energy necessa- 
“ ry, lie hud resorted to them on his own responsibility,” 
£i:c. Ag’ain ; in the letter to Mr. Erving, of the same 
flate, it is said that “ the Spanish government must like-- 
“ wise have been satisfied that the occupation of these 
“ places in Spanlsli Florida, by the commander of the 
xVmerican forces, was not by virtue of any orders re- 
ceived by him frotn this government to that effect.” 
I was much surju’ized wlien my honorable colleague (Mr. 
I’allmadge) told us,tliat he considered iiim as completely 
justified, by his orders, even in the capture of Pensacola,, 
and when, for proof of lids, he called our attention to a. 
pragraph in the letter of the Secretary of War to Gov, 







5 


Bibb of the 13th of May last, in which the Secretary says, 
“ Gen. .Tackson is vested witli fullpozvers to conduct the- 
“ war in the manner in which he luayjudge best,” These 
general orders, whatever they ma}- have been, must be 
construed in reference to the orders whicli had provided 
for the particular state of things wliich actually occurred, 
and must be restricted by them. The observance of tlie 
neutral rights of Spain had been expressly enjoined ; and 
the message of the 25th of March last also informed us 
that orders had “ been given to the general in command 
not to enter Florida unless in the pursuit of the enemy, 
and in that case to respect the Spanish aulliority where- 
« ever it was maintained.” d'he Secretary of War had 
no power whatever to issue a carte blanche of tlie kind 
which my honorable colle.ague has construed to include 
aright to attack tlie forts of a power in amity with u&. 
From my acquaintance with that officer, we differ very 
much in our estimation of his knowledge of the duties of 
his station, if my colleag'ue believes that such an unaur 
thorized license was e't er imagined by him. Nor has the 
Executive any such powers. From the orders actually 
issued, it seems that he too well understood the distribu¬ 
tion of powers, and too highly respected the cardinal 
principles of our government, to believe that, in this 
case, such a power could have been conferred en the 
commander of an army.. Not possessing it himself, hs 
could delegate it to no one ; and my colleague must luive 
been mistaken in the construction which he gave to these 
orders. The imm.ediate restoration of Pensacola is un¬ 
equivocal evidence that the post was net captured in 
conformity to the views or instriictions of the Executive, 
and virtually amounts to a disavowal of its seizure, on the 
part of our government. Although, as between us and 
Spain, the Executive has not, and perhaps ougiit no , to 
have yielded to the demand of that government to in¬ 
flict punishment on Gen. Jackson, it is not certain liow 
far Ihc} have intended to adopt his acts as constitutionah 
From a careful examination of the letter from the Secre¬ 
tary of State to Mr. Erving,. 1 have been led to doubt 
whether they have, in unqualilied teim.s, sanctioned tha 
occupation of St. Marks and Fcnsacola. in tliat letter, it 
is said that “ it became therefore, in the opinion of Geju 
« Jackson, indispensably necessary to take from the Gc- 
“ yernor of Pensacola the means* of carrying his threat 
into execi tion.”^ Again ; “ It was, in Ins jnd&meyit, not 
sufiioent tiiat they (the Indians) slioidd be suflered to 
rally their numbers under the jirotcction of Sj.anish 
“ forts,’^ &c. 'I he cautious jduaseolcgy of these and 
many other passages of this letter leaves it scmewhftk 


7 

equivocal whether even the g*overnment has, as between 
Gen. .Jackson and us, assumed to their whole extent the 
doctrines on whicli Gen. Jackson founded the justdlca- 
tion of his proceeding’s. If, however, such sanction was 
intcTided on the part of the Executive, the powers of 
Congress are doubly jeopardized. 

Sir, I have read this letter of the Secretary of State 
with grief, and, I will add, with no little humiliation for 
my country. Instead of that calm, manly, and dig-nihed 
character wliich formerly marked our diplomacy, it seems 
to have been penned under the influence of temper and 
petulance. It is a production rather addressed to the 
passions tlian a temperate and candid appeal to the rea¬ 
son and good sense of mankind. Some parts of it are, 
in my judgment, offensive to that diplomatic courtesy 
which should characterize the intercourse of nations. 
Refevung to Ambrister’s letters to Col.Nichols, “inform- 
“ ing him tliat he is with 300 negroes,” a few of our 
Bluff people, “ wlio had stuck to the cause, and were re- 
« lying on the faith of Nichols’s promises,” the jiaragTapii 
is thus continued: “ Our Bluff people were tiie people 
“ of the Negro Fort collected by Nicliols and AVcodbiit c, 
“ and ‘ the cause’ to -which they stuck was the savag'e, ser- 
“ vile, exterminating war ag-ainst the United States.”' 
Really, sir, if sarcasm must iiave been resorted to on the 
occasion, it surely need not have been sougiit for in the 
vulgarities of Ambrisfer’s letters. On the subject of the 
trials of Arbuthnot and Ainbrister, it is said that “ tlie 
“ defence of the one consisted solely and exclusively of 
« technical cavils at tiie nature of part of t)ie evidence 
“ against him, and the other confessed his guilt.” it is 
here gravely asserted, that, on a trial for l;fe or death, 
an objection to the hearsay declarations of an Indian is a 
technical cavil I —that this-countiy recog'nizes an institu¬ 
tion for trials of capital offences, on wiiich an objection to 
the [iroof of the hearsay declaration of an Incliaii, wlio, if 
himself present, couid not have been a competent wit¬ 
ness, is a technical cavil / To be condemned to an igno¬ 
minious death on testimony of this sort is wliat the lio- 
norable Secretary has termed “ the hen>\fu of a trial by 
court martial.” Tiie threat contained in the -conclusion 
of tins letter deserves, at least, to be remarked by this 
House: “ If the nece.ssitles of self-defence should again. 
« compel the United States to take possession of the 
« Hj.auish forts and places in Florida,, declare, with the 
“ f-rankness and candor that becomes us, that another un- 
« conditional restoration of them must not be expected.” 
Before a war of conquest is carried into tiie dominions of 
Span; before tlie armies of this iiatjon arc sent to en-. 




8 


force the conditions which we prescribe to otlier natlon?/- 
as tiie tenure by wiiich they sliali enjoy the sovcreigiity 
of their own territ^)ries, I trtist that ciiis House will at 
least be consulted ; that ilie discrclion of Cvjugrtss alone 
will determine tiie question ot war or jjcaee. 1 do not 
relish the fulmination of these threats by a secretary oi 
p^oreign Alhurs. We have, indeed, heard of imperial 
edicts in another quarter of the g’iobe. At one time it is 
decreed, that the hourhen djpiaaty no longer exists in SpaiHf 
at another, the i^yeen of xitruria no longer reigns, and a 
band of sokhery is forthwith sent to enforce the mandate, 
and overturn the governments of other nations. 'I hese 
imperial cxanuiies are hardly worthy of our imitation; 
and I pray ihJ, if this letter is to be hereafter the model 
of o'jr diplomadc correspoiidence, some means may bo 
devised ro rc,.oedy its eifect upon cur national character. 
It would hardly be imagined, from perusing that lettei, 
by one unversed in our institutions, that our form of go¬ 
vernment was rcpubiican. And against whom is this 
tlircal issvied ? - “ Poor, miserable, and degraded Spain 
Indeed she is too weak to rt pel or scarcely to resent tlie 
eucroacinneiKs of any; but, fallen as she is, it aflbrds but 
a sorry triuimph to insult her weakness. I fear that the 
wrongs of wliich she has been guilty towards us have in- 
ducCil less regard for i'.er riglits, and that we have not, 
therefore, been sciiipulous to respect them. 

p'or what reasons was Pensacola occupied? Not be¬ 
cause it might have fallen into tiie hands of tlie Indians, 
nor has it been asserted that it was necessary to tlie pre¬ 
servation of our army. 'fhe war was finished before 
General .lackson ci’osscdinlo West Florida, ilr. Adaims 
sa} s, that “before the farces under his command, the 
.savage enemies of his country had disappeared.^’ Gen¬ 
eral Jackson had, on the 26;h of April, said that they had 
“not the pov/er, if the will remained, of ag'ain annoying 
our frontier.” The cause v\ hich immediately determined 
him to ‘ liesitate no longer’on the course hesiiould pursue, 
was the delivery to him, on the 23d May, of the protest of 
the governor of Pensacola. Tins officer had, in defence 
of the province entrusted to his protection, determined 
to discharge his duty to his sovereign. He was bound to 
defend the territory. Had he not reason to believe the 
views of General Jackson to be hostile? Had he not the 
best means of judging ? General Jackson had previous¬ 
ly informed the Secretary of W-ar, in his letter of the 5th 
of May, that the statements wliich had been made to him 
of the supplies furnished from Pensacola to the Indians, 
compelled him “to make a movement to the west of the 
Appalacliicola, and, should they prove correct,” tliat 


9 


“Pensacola must be occupied by an American force, the 
governor treated according'to his deserts, or as policy 
may dictate.” At tliis time, this protest had not been re¬ 
ceived. Was Pensacola at last occupied as a temporary 
means of defence against the Indians ? In the despatch 
of the 2d of June, General Jackson says, that “the arti¬ 
cles, with but one condition, amount to a complete ces¬ 
sion to the United States of that portion of the Floridas 
hitherto under the government of Don Jose Mazot.” A 
civil government was estabTished, oihcers appointed; and 
in the same despatch the Secretary was informed, that 
“ Captain Gadsden was, among other tilings, instructed 
to report “ wliat new works should, in his opinion,- be e- 
rected to give permanent security to this important ter¬ 
ritorial acquisition to our republic.” Is this the manner, 
or are these the measures and the pi;inciples of the law 
of nations which gentlemen recognize as justifying the 
occupation of neutral forts by a belligerent in self-de¬ 
fence ? Are neutrals, when thus dispossessed of sover¬ 
eignty for tins purpose, to be treated as a conquered 
enemy ? I have not come here whth A^attel, or volumes 
of public law, to determine whether some principles may 
not be deduced by nice and subtle investigation, on 
which we may justify these acts. It is enough that these 
documents satisfy me that General Jackson occupied 
Pensacola with the views which he has himself declared. 
If these acts do not amount to war, I am at a loss to know 
what more we could have authorised to be done to change 
our relations whth Spain. The capture of St. Marks was 
equally unauthorised by orders, and was equally In dero¬ 
gation of the rights of Spain. It appears to have been 
seized as a convenient “depot” to facilitate the opera¬ 
tions of our army. I shall not detain you by again re j)eat- 
ing v. liat has already been so ably and satisfactorily illus¬ 
trated by those who have already addressed the commit¬ 
tee on this point. The terms, how'ever, on which Saint 
Marks was ofleredto be restored, are worthy of notice. 
I'hey tend to show how g'reatly the importance of this 
w'ar with the Semincles, and that necessity which is re¬ 
sorted to as a justification of the capture of this fort, has 
been magnified. St, Marks is in the heart of the territo¬ 
ry occujiied by these tribes—and, yet, it appears from the 
letter of the 30th of November, that two hundred and fif¬ 
ty men would be accepted as “a Spanish force adequate 
to its j)rotection against the Indians.” Yes, sir—two 
hundred and fifty “ poor, miserable, and deg'raded” 
Spaniards, as the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts 
(Mr. Holmes) was pleased to call that nation, were con- 
wdered as competent effectually to restrain tliese tribes 









10 


from its forcible occupation “for purposes of hostility a- 
jj^ainst the United States.” 

It has been thus that war has been waged without the 
authority of Congress. My honoi’able colleague (Mr. 
’j’alltnadge) in reviewing the effects ofthis campaign in 
I'lcrida, expressed liis satisfaction that permanent peace 
had been restored along the southern frontier. Peace ! 

1 cannot partake ofthis gratification. It is the peace of 
a gTcat charnel house—the peace which presides over 
the sepulchres of the dead—the peace which reigned a- 
long tlie Andes when the remorseless Pizarro had spread 
desolation over South America—the peace which perva¬ 
ded Holland when the merciless Duke of Alva had delug¬ 
ed her fruitful fields and drenched the streets of her ci¬ 
ties with the blood of her citizens—the peace which rest¬ 
ed on the vast plains of the Peninsula of nindostan,when 
the ferocious IJyder Aly liad extirpated from tliose fer¬ 
tile regions every vestige of civilization. Tliere is one 
difference, sir, between these cases. The one swept the 
remnant of his miserable victims into capti\ ity—the o- 
ther sent them to the Christian’s God. 

From every view which I have been able to take of 
this invasion of the Spanish territory, 1 am constrained to 
believe that, from the first entry uf our army into Flori¬ 
da, the rights of Spain were violated. I'iie lionorahle 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Holmes) assumed 
that the Indian tribes were independent nations,andtheu 
argued, that, as the United States wei-e at war wiili the 
Serninoles, who held concurrent sovereignty with Spain 
over the invaded territory, the neutral rights of Spain 
must yield to ours as a belligerent. I shall only reply to 
this, by saying that I know of no joint-tenancy of supreme, 
power of this sort—that! do not comprehenU withiimcli 
precision how among nations these various sovereignties 
can exist over the same subject and for the same purpo¬ 
ses ; all of which are independent; and, yet, all concur¬ 
rent—neither of which recog-nizes supremacy in the o- 
ther—whose separate authority is entirely elistinct, and 
at tlie same time absolute—and wherein one, ]>y chang¬ 
ing its own foreign relations, can com])lete]y prostrate all 
the rights of the other. The t■nhe^s of Indians which in¬ 
habit our territory are not considered as independent na¬ 
tions for any purposes, as between us and other powers. 
Even towards ourselves, we do not ackiiowledge them to 
be ;<bsoiiUet' so. It is too late now to enquire wlieth- 
er the i-ig’ht of European nations to this country has been 
defi\ ' cif cm discnv.rv or conquest, or what their rights 
womM be asrleduce l from either. Tlie original charters 
of the colonies, the giant of monopolies for'Indian trade- 


li 


and the repeated and unqualified transfer, by treaty, of 
all their territories, are unanswerable proofs that all 
rig’lits over the countries which they occupy are 
subordinate to the sovereignties of those governments 
witliin whose jurisdictions they reside. The common 
consent and universal convention of European powers, 
has settled this question—our own constitution has recog¬ 
nized and established the adoption of this principle into 
the code ofpublic law. The })ower even to regulate the 
trade of our own citizens and foreigners witli the Indians, 
and all their exterior coinmercial-connexious, is vested in 
Eongress. We do not recognize as lawful the interfer¬ 
ence of any ibreign power in their concerns. The mak¬ 
ing of treaties with them is denied. We claim them to 
be exclusively under our own protection. Had the hon¬ 
orable gentleman from Massachusetts but read a little 
fui’ther in the correspondence of our commissioners at 
Glient, he wovild liave found all these princijdes asserted 
and enforced. “M'ithoutthe admission of this principle, 
there would he no intelligible meaning attached to stip¬ 
ulations establishing boundaries between the dominions 
in America of civilized nations possessing territories in¬ 
habited by Indian tribes. Whatever may be tlie relations 
of Indians to the nation in whose territory they are thus 
acknowledged to reside, tliey cannot be considered as an 
inclependent power by the nation which has made such 
acknowledgment.” As between the Indians and us, we 
have left to them but a few limited attributes of sovereign¬ 
ty. The right to dispose of the lands they occu])y is not 
absolute. Their jiossessionscan only be transferred to the 
U. States. Frompolicy our laws have not been extended to 
them ; nor, indeed, would it be practicable for any useful 
purpose. Their attacks upon our inhabitants are repel¬ 
led by the Executive, as cases ol* domestic insurrection, 
without the formality of a declaration of war. From these 
principles, and this relation, it results that they are sq 
far our subjects, in reference to other powers, that we 
are bound to restrain their hostilities on foreign nations. 
Tlie same duty we claim of others. We have tlie right 
to require liiem to restrain their depredations on our¬ 
selves. Mhll it be tolerated, that an army from Cana¬ 
da, in hostility witli the Indian tribes residing in the state 
ofNew-York, could lawfully exercise the power of march¬ 
ing across that state—prostrating her sovereignty, and 
subjecting iier citizens to all the horrors of war, in pur¬ 
suit of tliosc tribes ? liefove a foreign power can claim 
any r.gbt of this sort, a demand at least on our own gov¬ 
ernment should be made. We were bound, on evciy 
principle which should be maintained in relation to the 








12 


Indian tribes, to have made this demand on Spain before 
we invaded her territory. Has this demand been made ? 
I have exaiiimed the correspondence, and have not found 
it. Since the destruction of the neg-ro fort, ii! 1816,1 do 
not find that, in ail the communications between our go¬ 
vernment ^nd the Spanish minister, the hostility of die 
Seminoles had been alluded to. Complaint was before 
made of the existence of that fort, but that has been long 
destroyed by our own forces. If any remonstrance has 
been preferred since that time, 1 hope that some gentle¬ 
man who justifies diese proceedings will point to it. In 
the letter of the Spajiish minister to our government, of 
the irtli of Jun'e last, it is asserted that, “ under tlie jire- 
‘ text of making' war against the Indians, on complaints 

* or motives which have neither been coimnuydcated to the 
‘ governor of those provinces, nor to the captain general 
‘ of tlie island of Cnba, who is also governor of them ; 

* nor to any other Spanish o fficer ov public functionary, the 

* dominions ot East Florida have been invaded, and the 
‘ Spanish territory entered as if it Jiad been an enemy’s 
‘ country,” This declaration was afterwards reiterated 
in a subsequent letter; and how has it been answered ? 
Two other letters were sent from the Spauisi. minister 
to our government, on this subject, when, on the 23d of 
,rul.y, Mr. Adams replied, in these words : Jt cannot be 

* unknoivn to you that, for a considerable time before the 
‘ government of the United States issued orders for mili- 
‘ tary operations in that quarter, the inhabitants of that 
‘ frontier had been exposed to depredations, &c.” It 
would not even have been sufficient that we had made a 
formal demand on the governor of Pensacola ; he was 
hut a subordinate officer: we w'erc at least bound to have 
remonstrated to the minister of Spain at this govern¬ 
ment. I have thus far considered this point w ithout re¬ 
ference to the treaty ; aiid perfect, as 1 believe, w ithout 
It, our^ right was to require .Spam to restrain the hostil¬ 
ities of the Indians residing w'ithin her territory, vet, as 
a treaty stipulation existed, it was more clearly our duty 
to have made that demand before her sovereignty was 
violated. The justification of the Exec uive, which has 
been alleged in this debate, as arising from the neglect 
of R{yain to fulfil the treaty, is fallacious. If the treaty 
liad been violated, tlie Executive possessed no authority 
to enforce our riglits by arms. It is the exertion of na¬ 
tional force for the redress of wrong or the preservation 
of right, wdiich constitutes the precise definition of war 
and the Congress alone w'as vested with tlie authority to 
dechu'e it. This treaty has heretofore received a practi- 



13 


Gal construction from ourselves, which should have been 
observed. When the right of deposit at New Orleans, 
which was secured by the 23d article, was withheld, un¬ 
der the presidency of Mr. Jefferson, it was proposed that 
Congress should immediately authorize the President to 
restore the right by force. The resolutions introduced 
into the Senate by Mr. Ross created much agitation and 
debate. One of those resolutions was, “ that the Presi- 
‘ dent be authorized to take immediate possession of 
‘ such place or places in the said island, or the adjacent 
‘ territories, as he may deem fit and convenient for the 
‘ purposes aforesaid ; and to adopt such other measures 
‘ for obtaining that complete security, as to him, in his 
‘ wisdom, sh^l seem meet.” Although this was merely 
♦a proposition to avthorize She President to restore this 
right by force, yet it was objected that the act of the in- 
tendant might be disavowed ; that, before war was thus 
waged, application should be made to the government of 
Spain. Tliis was the coui'se pursued by the republican 
party at that time, and which was adopted by Mr. Jeffer¬ 
son. When the Chesapeake frigate was attacked ; when 
John Pierce was murdered, and our neutrality violated, 
did' we fly to arms ? I am not the apologist of Spain. 
The injuries which w*e have received from that power, 
have been good cause of war. When that question is 
presented, I am ready to decide on the expediency of it. 
I shall support my country in all her rightful claims ; 
but, in this case, before 1 approve of the measures which 
have been adopted, I must be satisfied that we have first 
done that wdiich was necessary to place the Spanish gov¬ 
ernment in the wrong. 

Gentlemen have defended these proceedings as a case 
in which a belligerent is justified in seizing neutral forts 
or territory, in self-defence, arising out of extreme ne¬ 
cessity. I admit that cases may exist of that sort: tliey 
are rather exceptions to the doctrines which 1 maintain. 

1 can easily imagine that, even under the treaty with 
Spain, an attack by the Seminoles might be so smlden 
and unanticipated, that we might be justified in pursuing 
them even into Florida. But this necessity must not ori¬ 
ginate from the fault of the belligerent.. If, as in the case 
before us, our neglect for so long a period to require of 
Spain tlie fulfilment of the treaty, or to represent to that 
government, or even to its minister here, the hostile in¬ 
tentions of the Indians, has brought this necessity upon 
ourselves, the fault is on our side. Tliese Indian U-ibes, 
and tiieir associates, have been represented as mere ban- 
•ditti^outlaws—renegadoes.. If so, then Spain w'as- an.-- 
2 . 





14 


sw erable to us, on well settled principles', for their acts. 

But I ask, in what code of the law of nations is an author¬ 
ity asserted for one government, at its own pleasure, to 
pursue banditti, outlaws, renegadoes,or even its own felons^ 
into the territories of another,in any case, without first de¬ 
manding that they should be delivered up ? Sir, I will 
detain the committee no longer on this part of these pro¬ 
ceedings. When the order was issued for the advance 
of our army into Florida, Congress was in session. Sub¬ 
sequent events have shown how greatly it is to be la¬ 
mented that an appeal had not been made to that body 
which could only change our relations with Spain, and 
which was then in tlie full exercise of its constitutional 
functions. I.have been somewhat surprized at hearing 
the encomiums which have been bestowed on General 
Jackson for this incursion into Florida. A vote of thanks 
has been talked of. He has been called by the imposing 
names of conqueror—hero—benefactor. Conqueror ! 

If the rout and dispersion of a race of barbarians, degra¬ 
ded and defenceless as the Seminoles, can confer this ti¬ 
tle, high, indeed, is his elevation. When Tigranes, with 
two hundred thousand men, had been defeated by Lucul- 
lus, with only twenty thousand, the Roman soldiers, after 
pursuing the enemy for some distance, suddenly stopt, 
and burst into loud laughter, to think that they had used 
their swords on such a set of cowardly slaves. Hero ! If 
the blaze of burning towns—the extermination of their 
wretched inhabitants—the death of captives, and the ex¬ 
tirpation of the human race, can confer renown, and ele¬ 
vate our nature, glorious and ennobling, indeed, are these 
achievements. Benefactor ! If the honor of our coun¬ 
try—tlie dignity of its character—the justice of its institu¬ 
tions, and the purity of our religion, are sanctified by 
deeds like these, pour out your full libations of praise^ 
and offer the unaffected homage of a nation’s gratitude. 

How keenly does it wound the sensibility, how low- 
should it sink the pride of an American, to compare the ' % 
laurels won upon the plains of Orleans, with this sicken¬ 
ing night-shade, plucked from the morasses of Florida ! 

As to the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, I ac¬ 
quiesce in the moral justice of their sentence. Without 
«xpressing that opinion from the evidence on their trials, 
they probably deserved their fate. But I can never ad¬ 
mit the legality of the trials or the punishment which was 
inflicted. Had they been put to death in the heat of 
battle, considering the course which they have pursued,! 
shouldnothave censured it,howmucbsoeverl should have 
regretted such an exercise of power. But they were tried 
by a court martial. Sucli it was originally called in the 


15 


despatches of General Jackson, and such it is recognized 
to have been in the letter to Mr. Erving-. 

The honorable Speaker alluded to the case of the Duke 
p*Engaein, as in many respects similar to these The 
history of the recent events in Europe furnislies anoth¬ 
er, which, in my judgment, is more nearly parallel. When 
the armies of France were devastating Europe, John 
Palm, a citizen of Nuremburgh, was seized by order of 
the Emperor, torn from his family, and brought before a 
military tribunal. He was a printer. His crime was, 
that he had instructed his countrymen in their rights, and 
taught them their duty ; that he had exhorted them to 
defend their country against its invaders. For this he 
was charged with having excited the enemies of France to 
hostiliti/ ag’ainst the Emperor. On this charge he was con¬ 
demned and executed. How striking and palpable Is th* 
resemblance between this accusation and those on which 
Arbuthnot and Ambrister vere tried ! All Europe and 
America indignantly reprobated the exercise of such a 
power by a military tribunal, even in a country at war 
w'ith France. And what were the mighty effects produ¬ 
ced by the French Emperor, by this barbarous act ? He 
widowed a wife—orphaned her helpless offspring, and 
broke the heart of a woman ! Sanction the death of Ar¬ 
buthnot and Ambrister, and with what grace shall we 
hereafter condemn the execution of John Palm ? t shall 
^ vote my disapprobation of the trials of Arbuthnot and 
Ambrister, because they were executed under the forms 
of law, and because I am not prepared to avow to the 
world, that we, who boast so much of our justice, recog¬ 
nize an institution of this nature. I am anxious to blot 
out this stain upon our national character. Their 
case was not within the jurisdiction of a court martial. 
Courts martial, among us, are but the mere creatures of 
positive law. All their authority is derived from the 
statute which creates them ; without that they are noth- 
ing. They can take cognizance of no offences whatever, 
except those specihcally named in the statute. Tlieir ju¬ 
risdiction over persons is strictly confined to the armji, 
and those attached to it, and, without that express au¬ 
thority winch has been conferred, I should doubt wlicth- 
er they, as courts martial, had any juristillction even in the 
case of a spy. They arc tribunals of special and lim . ed 
jurisdiction'; their powers cannot be extended by impli¬ 
cation, and they are strictly confined to tiie powers ex¬ 
pressly granted to them. What, sir, is the nature of 
these tribunals,? The accuser prefers the ciiarges ; the 
accuser, in the first instance, selects the judges from iiis 
own subordinate officers ; tlie accuser appoints the pub- 






16 


Ih: advocate ; the accuser approves or disapproves the 
sentence ; and the accuser executes it. Lamentable 
would be our situation if courts martial should be suffer¬ 
ed to trans,egress a single letter of_the law which creates 
tliem. Their proceedings are contrary to all those safe¬ 
guards which the municipal law has provided for the se¬ 
curity of personal liberty. The charges are not even 
sanctioned by an oath ; the arrest is not founded on 
oath ; the trial is without jury; the decision is in secret, 
and the correction of their -errors depends on the plea¬ 
sure of him to whom the sentence is submitted. It is now 
asserted that he may even alter it. By the municipal 
lav^^ of England and of this country, a judge who should 
venture to pronounce a sentence of death, contrary to 
the punishment which the law has prescribed ; or an of¬ 
ficer who should execute even a sentence of death in a 
different manner from the judgment, would suffer the 
punishment of death. Is th^’e any thing, then, in the 
nature or proceedings of a military tribunal, which should 
induce us to view them with a more partial and indul¬ 
gent eye ? The sword is almost the only emblem of 
justice which guides them. Shall we now say to Europe 
that an American army, on entering a foreign country, 
carries with it these dreadful engines of human misery 
and oppression ? With my consent these transactions 
shall never be recorded by history, as the acts of the 
nation. Mr. Storrs here entered into an examination of 
the charges on which Arbuthnot and Ambrister were 
tried, and concluded that none of them, (except that of 
being a spy, on which they were acquitted,) were cog¬ 
nizable by a court martial; that they were inconsistent 
and absurd; and that, as to Arbuthnot, he doubted 
whether sufficient evidence was produced to establish 
them. 

But, said he, of infinite consequence will the effect of 
our vote be on the national character. We profess to be 
the only free government on earth—that our intercourse 
with foreign nations is characterized by moderation and 
justice—that our institutions are pure and unspotted— 
that our national character is beyond reproach. Above 
all, we profess to be Christians. Go—follow the track 
of this Christian army through the Floridas. It can easily 
be traced. Every footstej) is trodden in blood. The 
path is strewed with the unbleached bones and livid car¬ 
cases of its slaughtered inhabitants. Survey this fright¬ 
ful waste of human life—the awful calamities which have 
been inflicted on our own species, and say if our posteri¬ 
ty will not blush for their ancestors. An incident which 
occurred during this campaign carries with it the keen- 





i7 

est rebuke to our professions of Christianity. Duncan 
M‘Rinunon, one of the Georg’ia militia, was captured by 
the Indians in the early part of the war; he was con¬ 
demned by Hillis fladjo to death; tlie victim was bound 
in his presence and the instruments of torture were pre¬ 
pared. The daugliter of this chief, an artless and unedu¬ 
cated child of the forest, who had never heard of the 
precepts of our religion, whose on!} mstruction liad been 
received from that father, at the awful moment when he 
was about to sufl'er the excruciating death to be iniiicted 
by sa\age ferocity, this Indian girl rushing between him 
and his murderers, implored his life. On her interces¬ 
sion it was granted—the life of our fellow countryman 
was spared. That father, who thus listened and yielded 
to this supplication of mercy was the Prophet Francis, 
whom General Jackson afterwards executed. His or¬ 
phaned child, in return for the disinterested benefaction 
which she bestowed upon us, is left to heap up the fallen 
earth around his grave.* Sir, is tiiis the sera of the world 
when America shall sanction these acts of inhumanity ? 
■When the potentates of Europe are compelled in their 
alliances to appeal to the moral sense of mankind to se¬ 
cure the stability of their thrones—when all Christendom 
ds awakened, and one universal eff ort is making to dif¬ 
fuse the gospel and inculcate its precepts of mercy 
throughout the benighted regions'of the globe, shall we 
turn aside from this work of benevolence and refvise to 
efface from our history these'*examples of barbarous cru¬ 
elty ? A new sera has commenced among the nations yf 
the earth. On every side and in every heart the am^b- 

*Col. Arbiickle, commandant of Fort Gadsden ou the 
Appalachicola, observes in a letter, to the Editors a the 
Georgia Journal, of tlie 1st Nov. that “but few of tfffe hos¬ 
tile Indians have surrendered of late, owing, as I believe, 
in a great measure, to tlieir having received information 
that the Spanish government will again have jessession 
of the Floridas.” He adds— 

“ Duncan M‘Rimmon is here. Mill}^ tin Prophet 
Francis’s daughter, says she saved his life, used sucli 
influence as she possessed to that effect, fron leelings ot 
humanity alone, and that she would have rendered the 
same service to any other white man sinilai'ly 
stanced ; she is, therefore, not disposed lo accept of his 

offer of matrimony, which has been made a5 an acknow¬ 
ledgment of gratitude. The donation presented im ougit 

me, by tlie citizens of Milledgeville, to Milly, has been 
delivered, and she manifested a cotsicicrable degree oi 
.thankfulness for their kindness.” 


) 











18 


ration of the condition of the human race is exciting the 
noblest efforts of our nature. Every Christian nation is 
engaged in the abolition of the slave trade. I see around 
me some of those who have devoted themselves to this 
alleviation of human misery ! Go on, may God prosper 
you in this noble work of humanity and benevolence— 
your names shall descend to posterity, associated with 
Wilberforce and Pitt—yourproud reward shall be,thatyou 
have bound up the broken-hearted—that you have carri¬ 
ed joy and peace and comfort and consolation to thou¬ 
sands of widowed mothers and their helpless children. 
Let our vote on this occasion wash out the stains which 
have tarnished our reputation by the execution of the 
Indian Chiefs and the death of Arbuthnot and Ambrister. 
If, however, these deeds of cruelty are to receive the 
sanction of this House, here, before God and man, I wash 
my hands of their blood. 











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